The response from business leaders to the indictment of Mayor Eric Adams has been deafening — a deafening silence.

Only Kathy Wylde, the CEO of the Partnership for New York City, has been willing to speak to reporters on the record.

As head of the trade association that represents the city’s largest companies, she emphasizes the need for political, business and civic leaders to focus on the crucial issues facing the city while the mayor’s fate is decided. 

“We cannot allow the important projects and policy initiatives that the istration has underway to get bogged down with the mayor’s case,” said Wylde.

Meanwhile, other major business groups, including the Real Estate Board of New York, the Association for a Better New York and the borough chambers of commerce, have said nothing. 

Their reticence is not surprising. Business leaders are loath to criticize a sitting mayor who can cause trouble for their enterprises. And they have been loyal backers of this particular mayor both because he is such a contrast to his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, who routinely bashed them, and because his priorities — fighting crime, spurring economic development and tackling the housing crisis — are their priorities.

Maybe most importantly, according to extensive background interviews THE CITY has conducted over the past several weeks, the candidates who have announced for mayor so far are unpalatable to business leaders because of their progressive views.

“There is a lot of frustration because folks wanted Eric to succeed,” said one business leader.

The first test will come on the Mayor’s ambitious City of Yes housing initiative to spur construction of as many as 100,000 new homes over the next 15 years. The City Planning Commission voted 10-3 to approve the plan and send it to the City Council Wednesday, hours before news broke that Adams would be indicted.

ers of City of Yes were already pleading with the Council not to link the mayor’s troubles to the City of Yes.

“This isn’t about the mayor anymore. It’s about what the city needs,” Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference told THE CITY two weeks ago. “We have 51 of the City Council that need to say where they stand on increasing the supply of housing.”

Not all business leaders are convinced the indictment, which alleged he accepted free travel from Turkish interests, encouraged illegal contributions to his campaign and influenced city agencies to benefit Turkish allies, represented serious corruption.

“For the business community, the problem is that operational paralysis, mass resignations and the inability to recruit new people just means worse quality of life and that impacts their employees, customers,” said Bradley Tusk, once an important aide to Mayor Bloomberg. (Tusk is a donor to THE CITY).

While that suggests the mayor should resign, he added, “maybe Williams should not have indicted because the crime does not outweigh the damage he’s causing as a result.”

But the most important factor in the official silence on the scandals is that the candidates who have announced for mayor so far are all considered too progressive and anti-business — Comptroller Brad Lander, and state senators Jessica Ramos and Zellnor Myrie. A possible candidacy by Republican City Council member Joe Borelli hasn’t gotten much attention.

For example, prominent real estate attorney Sherwin Belkin called the prospect of Lander, currently city comptroller, becoming mayor a “disaster” in a social media post that said Lander is opposed to private ownership of housing or profit. Other business leaders in not-for-attribution interviews said they viewed Lander as anti-business.

Insiders say the candidates have begun to business leaders to see if they can find common ground, no one more aggressively than Lander. He gave a well-received speech to the Association for Better New York last month arguing that he could provide competent leadership.

He followed that with an appearance before the fiscal watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission, where he withdrew a proposal made 18 months ago to impose higher taxes on the rich — saying that better-than-expected tax revenues made it unnecessary.

Business groups are also grappling with two other unknowns.

It is unclear what policy changes could happen if Adams resigned and public advocate Jumaane Williams became mayor, even for as little as the 80 days it would take to hold a special election. Williams’ representative on the City Planning Commission was one of the three votes against the City of Yes housing proposal.

And business leaders are considering their options if former Gov. Andrew Cuomo entered the race. While he left office after sexual harassment claims, he would be the most moderate of the candidates in the race and was was generally regarded as a pro-business governor. If Cuomo runs, he is expected to campaign on two issues of great importance to the business community: reducing crime and running an efficient government.

But like the situation with the mayor, no one is ready to discuss on the record whether they might Cuomo.